The history of cattle companies and Bar-N ranch in Alberta, Canada begins as people from the eastern Canadian regions began traveling westward in the 1800′s.
Cattle and livestock were brought to the semiarid region of southeastern Alberta in the late 1850′s from the western United States. Cattle ranching began during the Gold Rush Era and continued to thrive in the valleys of British Columbia, Alberta, and Cypress Hill region. The climatic features allowed the grassland to be lush enough where the cattle could graze year round. These cattle ranches provided food to the Indian Reservations in the region especially during the brutal cold winter months.

The cattle ranches after 1874 began providing the Northwest Mounted Police food in return the Mounties’ provided a small local market and security for the open grazing lands. George Emerson from the Hudson Bay region and an American-Irishman frontiersman by the name Joseph McFarland brought small cattle herds to Alberta from Montana. Many investors from Montreal lease 147,000 acres of grazing land from the Alberta Territory. However, by 1883 the Canadian Pacific Railway reached the Alberta territory and prairies, which allowed the ranches to open a new market eastward. This also brought a new threat to the cattle ranches and it was to allow others to be able to settle on the land.

The biggest blow to the cattle ranches was the killer winter in 1906 where 1,000 or more head of cattle was lost causing a decline in the industry. The future economy of the cattle ranches and companies were uncertain leaving many to go out of business. The following years many of the ranches that survived help the United States during the depression and both World Wars. Today not only do the ranches have cattle but also they have breed horses that are known to pull as workhorses in the fields.